As a company, Apple is no stranger to being talked about by individuals and news outlets on an almost daily basis. With that said, certain areas of focus have meant that Tim Cook’s company has been consistently making the front-page news for a number of reasons – some positive, some negative – over the last few weeks. A newly leaked image has just arrived on the scene that thrusts Apple into the headlines once again, this time focusing on the potential hardware configuration of the September-bound iPhone 7 thanks to an early prototype case with an interesting physical design.

Manufacturers of third-party accessories, such as protective cases and portable power packs, will often get access to early design schematics that allow them to plan their own next-generation of accessories for whatever device Apple produces. This latest image leak progresses to feature one of the first iPhone 7 cases that has come off the manufacturing line, and if based on genuine schematics, then it seems to confirm a number of rumors about the potential design of the iPhone 7 that have been doing the rounds for quite some time.

Firstly, the case itself is very notable in the fact that it doesn’t contain any cut-out or aperture for headphones to pass through into the 3.5mm audio jack on the device.

A number of reports over the last few months have suggested that the next-generation iPhone would ship without the inclusion of the iconic 3.5mm headphone jack. This would allow Apple to use the Lightning port on the device as a single converged audio and data solution, with users also having option of listening to audio via bluetooth headphones. Investigation into the iOS 9.3 codebase has also “confirmed” this exclusion.

The visually aware amongst us will instantly see that the 3.5mm headphone cut-out has been replaced with an aperture that looks identical to the cut-out on the other side on the case that would be for the existing speaker grill on the device. We can instantly derive from this that previous speculation about the iPhone 7 shipping with a dual-speaker setup could indeed be true.

Familiarity in design comes from the fact that the case still shows the usual cut-outs for the volume buttons, the rear camera module, and the Lightning connector which will likely be changed internally to act as an all-in-one solution.

We will have to wait for some more solid concrete evidence before we can actually say with confidence that all of the above is definitely going to happen. But for now, the existence of additional rumors and visual leaks suggests that what we’ve been reading is likely to be true.

Hahaha! Must be true because a case manufacturer (cough cough) has started prototyping cases 7 months before the release of the phone! And yet somehow when the iPhone 7 does ship no one will have any f’ing cases for it for the first few months complaining “Apple doesn’t give us the specs until the last minute!”

John Gina

Cheapest looking case I’ve ever seen in my life.

Brian Sours

They better pack in a Bluetooth headset for calls.

Erick Reyes

First productive thing you have said in your life

Timmy

Is Redmond Pie really using the word “confirmed” when referring to a $1 case that can be purchased at a knock-off phone vendor? These cheap cases were most likely made based off of speculation…that’s not confirmation.

Kelvin Guerrero

Woww Sachin, should feeling good about yourself. Getting some serious thumbs up there lol

Alexander Mozina

Do you think during the press conference apple explains the importance of removing the headphone jack and Dac for a digital solution. Or do you think they’ll gloss over it? I’m hoping they do explain it. So that people will be more likely to support the absence of this 50 year old analogue port.